Your Collective Noun

Picture the scene.  You’re in an internal sales team meeting and people are moaning.  Product, marketplace, environment, marketing, competition, support, pricing, production, commissions.  Take your pick.  You know you shouldn’t get involved, but the herd mentality kicks in and the downward spiral destructively crashes ever deeper.

I recall the great cricket commentator Richie Benaud pose the question (in the mid-80s, when England could beat all-comers apart from the Windies) ‘what should you call a group of former England captains?’  As several fielders (including Botham, Gower & Lamb) continued to remonstrate like Latins about what should happen next, he paused before the punchline, “a discard of captains”.

I also have a friend that I played many a memorable football match alongside, who’s surname is Goldfinch.  He revels in telling people (well, specifically ladies) that a flock of such birds is properly known as a ‘charm’.

The telling question for us sellers is, what would be the appropriate collective noun for the team of salespeople of which you are part?

If you recognise the opening paragraph’s scenario, then perhaps one of these may ring true; a gloom of salespeople or a misery of reps.  The stereotypically negative view would perhaps suggest a couple more; a sloth of salespeople, or a chatter of reps.

If your collective noun is indeed a negative one, then what can you do to reverse the charge?  How can you become say, a trust of salespeople, a hospital of reps, a respect of salespeople, a success of reps, a triumph of salespeople, or even a partner of reps?